1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a translatory actuator unit that can receive an operating command via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a robot technology has been developed, and a force control technology using a force sensor has attracted considerable attention. In the field of welfare and nursing care, by using the force control technology, care equipment can cooperate with a person to perform care working.
A care bed, standing assist equipment, wheelchair and so on have been known as care equipment. When a person who needs nursing care or a care giver uses his or her force, such care equipment assists the person to promote self support, or assist the care giver to reduce a load of the care giver.
A kind of a lift as clinical support equipment is commercially available (disclosed in the following Reference 1). However, such clinical support equipment was developed for use by a care giver. The clinical support system can reduce a load of a care giver, but it is difficult for a person who needs nursing care to use the clinical support equipment to obtain support.
[Reference 1]
“http://www.hcr.or.jp/english.html”.
A system in which a robot arm is set in a rail on a ceiling (see the following Reference 2), and a walking support system having a mechanism that moves on a ceiling by making the ceiling of an iron steel and using a permanent magnet (see the following Reference 3) are developed as a system for promoting clinical self-support of a person who needs nursing care.
[Reference 2]
N. Suzuki, et al. “System assisting walking and carrying daily necessities with an overhead robot arm for in-home elderlies”, Proc. Of the 22nd Annual Int'l Conf. of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Vol. 3, pp 2271–2274, 2000.
[Reference 3]
“Function and Safety Measure of Walking Assist System Hanging on Ceiling”, Preliminary Draft Collection of Japanese Robot Society, 1L19, 2002, author: Sugimoto, et al.
However, in order to attach these systems to a normal house, the house needs to be greatly improved so as to be suitable to the systems. Meanwhile, a relatively small clinical support system is proposed (see the following Reference 4), but this system is operated by a joystick. It is necessary to establish concreteness of how to operate the system and who operates the system.
[Reference 4]
“Moving Support Equipment Aiming to Promote Self-Support Ability”, 45th Automatic Control Association Lecture, pp. 319–320, 2002, author: Okawai, et al.
Furthermore, power assist clinical support system driven by a wire is proposed. Research is performed on a clinical support method in which an appropriate clinical support is given in accordance with a state of a user (see Reference 5). It is very effective to give clinical support in accordance with a force applied to the system by the user. However, there is a problem in that this clinical support system becomes relatively large.
[Reference 5]
“Experimental Review Regarding Method of Controlling Power Assist Equipment for Self-Support Movement”, 8th Robotics Symposia, pp. 136–141, 2003, author: Nagai, et al.
Meanwhile, a computer communication such as an Internet has been recently developed, and it is proposed to drive and control a remote apparatus via a network (see the following References 6 and 7, for example).
[Reference 6]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-159760.
[Reference 7]
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-18569.
According to “System and Method for Driving Toy via Network” of Reference 6, as shown in FIG. 1, the system includes a plurality of communication servers 50 and 53 that provide message information by computer communication on a network, a plurality of driving devices 51 and 54 that receives the message information from the communication servers 50 and 53 and analyze the message information, and a plurality of toys 52 and 55 that receive input message information from the driving devices 51 and 54 and move or output character information, audio information or video information. Thus, a specific movement or audio is realized by this system in accordance with message information provided by the computer communication.
According to “Method and Apparatus for Controlling Mobile Object, and Storing Medium” of Reference 7, a user system 63, a viewing system 65, a mobile object system 62 and a shooting system 66 are connected via a communication line 64 such as the Internet. The mobile object is controlled by two-way communication.
A care bed that is care equipment is generally provided with 2 to 4 translatory actuators. Also, standing assist equipment (clinical system) and a wheelchair are often provided with a translatory actuator to perform rising and falling operation while supporting weight of a person who needs support.
Conventionally, in order to configure force control system using a translatory actuator, it was necessary to combine the actuator, a motor driver, a controller, a force sensor and the like that are separately developed. To avoid such combination, exclusive design is required, so that the extensibility becomes low, and the system inevitably becomes expensive.
Furthermore, to configure a system that further reduces a load of a care giver and a person needing care, it is desired to combine a plurality of care equipment (a bed system, a clinical system, a wheelchair, and so on). However, the conventional care equipment has no interface function, and it is necessary to configure an entire system.